Prof: It’s all Hamilton, all the time. (Sorry, I’m super tired and I can’t think of anything more creative haha)
Phillies 1, Spiders 10 – Scouts: The Spiders aren’t going down without a fight, slugging their way into a tie with Tampa for the final Wild Card Spot.
Blue Jays 3, Yankees 8 – Prof: Yo, turns out we have a secret weapon, An immigrant you know and love who’s unafraid to step in
Luis Severino pitched for five pristine innings and struck out nine, getting his first win of the season. A good thing, too; with the Yankees atop the leaderboard in the AL East, they will need Severino’s services to power through the mighty AL postseason landscape. Aaron Judge, DJ LeMahieu, and Brett Gardner went deep.
Mariners 1, Orioles 2 – Scouts: Chris Davis hit his 11th home run, a ball that looked to clear the short right porch by about 3 and a half inches. It was both a perfect reminder and a sad statement on the strange twist his career has made over the past three seasons.
Red Sox 7, Rays 4 – Prof: Do you guys remember Nathan Eovaldi? Gosh, it feels like only yesterday he was in Yankee pinstripes getting dudes out of a jam. Now he’s in Boston. Eovaldi did yeoman’s work, going six and strike out the same. Christian Vazquez hit a three run homer to gum up the works just a little bit for Tampa Bay.
White Sox 3, Tigers 6 – Scouts: Detroit picks up a rare win thanks to homers by Jeimer Candelario, Gordon Becham, Victor Reyes, and Willi Castro.
Mets 6, Reds 3 – Prof: Don’t look now, but the Mets are still hanging in there. I know it seems ridiculous, but it’s true. New York is hanging on by a thread (and the Cubs’ epic late season collapse) to playoff dreams, but they will have to play their way in. Of course, when you have a guy like Michael Conforto, you’re in good hands. My favorite non-Brave NL East player continues to mash, this time hitting a three run homer to put the Mets on top. The Noted Drone Enthusiast gets the loss. Hate to see it.
Nationals 3, Marlins 5 – Scouts: The Nationals lost what should have been an easy win in Miami thanks to a bullpen that provided no relief. Austin Dean kicked things off with a homer in the 7th, followed by a Jon Berti double scoring a pair and a Starlin Castro triple that once again cleared the bases. Thankfully for the Nats, they still cling to the top wild card spot, in a tie with the Brewers.
Giants 4, Braves 1 – Prof: Braves lose, but they’ve won the NL East. They also had a scare with Freddie Freeman having some elbow discomfort. FF5, my fearless leader, will be on the bench for the Kansas City series to rest the wing for the postseason, where it’s much more important that Atlanta has a healthy first baseman and team de facto captain. Anyway, back to this game. Dallas Keuchel was doing all right until about the sixth inning when he suddenly couldn’t keep it in the zone and allowed two earned runs. Evan Longoria went 2-5 with two RBU, Joey Rickard went 2-4 with 2 RBI. I remember when Joey Rickard was wasting away in Baltimore; glad to see he’s getting some DAP on the west coast.
Angels 5, Astros 13 – Prof: I prob’ly shouldn’t brag, but dag, I amaze and astonish!
I know the Yankees, Dodgers, Braves, and Twins all have extremely powerful teams but find me a team that inspires as much swag and confidence night after night as Houston does. Orbit’s boys were crowned as AL West champs for the third year in a row, and did it absolutely demolishing Los Angeles of Anaheim of Southern California. Justin Verlander wins his 20th game of the season. There were three Springer Dingers. Alex Bregman had a two run homer, too.
Pirates 3, Brewers 4 – Prof: It must be nice, it must be nice, to have Washington on your side…
The Brewers don’t know how to quit. They are tied with the Nats on top of the NL Wild Card standings. Fitting because former National Gio Gonzalez gets the win for Milwaukee. Eric Thames went yard twice, and Craig Counsell still gets my vote for NL Manager of the Year (sorry, Brian Snitker).
Royals 8, Twins 12 – Scouts: Minnesota is looking pretty good, holding a 4 game lead for the division, although there is still time. Their magic number went down a hair as Nelson Cruz joined the 400 homer club.
Cardinals 3, Cubs 2 – Prof: The Cardinals wrote their way into the narrative, and the Cubs are playing incredibly stupid baseball. Even with a Yu Darvish start that lasted eight and 1/3 innings, and featured 12 strikeouts, Chicago dropped yet another extremely important game to their division rival. St. Louis clinched a playoff berth and swept the Cubs in a four game series at Wrigley for the first time in nearly 100 years. The Cubs, who were poised to get at least a wild card, are now in danger of losing even the second wild card spot to the Mets. Shaking my damn head.
Rangers 8, Athletics 3 – Scouts: Oakland’s grip on the top Wild Card spot sits at two after a loss to Texas. Tanner Roark did not have his best day ever, allowing 4 homers in 3 short innings.
Diamondbacks 4, Padres 6 F/10 – Scouts: One of the few games that had zero playoff implications, had one of the best endings. Everyone loves a walk off! Well, everyone except the losing team I suppose. Seth Mejias-Brean homered to send Arizona packing and the home field fans a nice glimpse of what they may see more of in the future.
Rockies 4, Dodgers 7 – Prof: I know that we can win, I know that greatness lies in you, But remember from here on in, History has its eyes on you.
The Dodgers have won 100 games, and did it on the back of their season’s undisputed ace, Huyn-Jin Ryu. Ryu went seven innings and had eight strikeouts. Meanwhile, your probable NL MVP Cody Bellinger hit a grand slam.
Fan Interference 
Nats and Brewers in a virtual tie for the two WC spots, although the Nats have two games in hand and lead by one in the loss column. Eight games left for the Nats, and if they win four, they’re in, no matter what anyone else does. The Brewers hold the tiebreaker over the Nats, so if they’re the two WC teams (and it’s looks likely that they will be) and they’re tied at the end of the regular season, the NL WC game will be in Milwaukee.
This past weekend with the Feesh, though, made it pretty clear that the Nats are going to need complete games from their starters to win anything in the post-season, as the twin demons of bad relief pitching and bad bullpen management have come back to haunt them.
On Saturday, Fernando Rodney was brought in to pitch the 8th of a game the Nats led 4-0, and even though a blind man could see Rodney had nothing (bad relief pitching), Davey left him out there long enough to give up the entire lead (bad bullpen management). Thankfully, the Nats rallied in the 10th and won the game 10-4, but it didn’t have to get that far.
Yesterday, Austin Voth went five solid innings, and Hunter Strickland had a quiet 6th, so Davey sent him back out for the 7th. Asking a reliever to pitch more than one inning has not led to much success for the Nats this year, and here’s how the inning went (h/t Hardball Talk for the summary):
Dean homered to center on a 3-1 count.
Brinson was hit by a pitch.
Granderson pinch-hitting for J.García.
Suero pitching.
On pickoff attempt, throwing error by pitcher Suero, Brinson to second.
Granderson struck out.
Sierra walked on a full count.
Berti doubled to right, Brinson scored, Sierra scored.
Rainey pitching.
Castro tripled to left, Berti scored.
Alfaro struck out.
I.Díaz struck out.
Tanner Rainey might be a closer some day; he cleaned up Rodney’s mess on Saturday, and the triple he gave up yesterday happened when Castro literally threw his bat at the pitch and managed to hit it down the left field line, but Strickland is only good for one inning, and Suero can’t be trusted.
Davey has not yet grasped the concept of “Piss on roles; in a pennant race/playoffs you use your best pitchers in the highest leverage situations regardless of what inning it is, and you keep everyone on a real short leash.” We fans watched the 2014 NLDS end in Game 4 in part because Matt Williams went with “our 7th inning guy” and that guy wasn’t up to the task; the Nats’ season will end similarly, with at least one game where the wrong reliever is asked to do a job that he can’t do.
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